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Five Tracks That Sampled Kids’ Songs Better Than Kylie Jenner’s Rap Debut

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Although Kylie Jenner has gone on record telling us that she had no plans to start a music career, she made her musical debut Thursday on a new rap track titled “Beautiful Day” alongside an artist who goes by the moniker Burberry Perry. The track is a riff on (and heavily samples) the Mr. Rogers theme song, and also features Jenner’s friend, Jordyn Woods, plus actual IRL musicians and fellow Jenner cohorts, Justine Skye and Lil Yachty.

Jenner’s brief part is exactly what you think it would be — imagine the Calabasas-vocal fry of the reality TV celebutante singing the Mr. Rogers theme song, then autotune it to a degree that would make even T-Pain blush. (Although if you’re looking to listen to just Kylie’s part, you can fast-forward to the 2:40 mark.)

However, Jenner’s meh vocals on an even more meh song are not the real tragedy here — that is, the complete waste of the Mr. Rogers theme song sample. Children’s media is chock-full of golden opportunities to be featured in rap and this unlikely intersection has given us some of hip-hop’s most beloved tracks. Here are five songs that did it right.

 

Chance the Rapper’s “Wonderful Everyday: Arthur ft. The Social Experiment”

Chance’s dreamy take on the Ziggy Marley-penned Arthur theme features Wyclef Jean and Jesse Ware in a soothing, trippy experience that’s less after-school on PBS and more after-hours.

Jay Z’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”

Hov riffed on the beloved “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” number from the musical Annie to illustrate his own upbringing in his 1998 hit, “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).”

Doug E Fresh’s and the Get Fresh Crew’s “The Show”

Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick trade rhymes while sampling the Inspector Gadget theme song. Go, go, Gadget never sounded so smooth.

E-40’s Flamboastin’

Beloved Bay Area rapper and hyphy enthusiast E-40 used the theme song from The Addams Family with a heavily synthesized beat as the base for his signature fast flow on “Flamboastin,” which featured Birdman.

The Lazytown remix ft. Lil Jon

While the slightly irreverent Lazytown remix featuring Lil’ Jon isn’t an official track, it probably should be. The upbeat theme song to the children’s show mixed with the high-energy yelps of the rapper is the crunk children’s song we never knew we needed.

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Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com